When I visited the base earlier this year with
a small group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a
large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone
flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we
were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to
the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was
tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove
out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a
reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a
training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the
room.